A major problem facing the health care industry today is the difficulty of enforcing patient compliance with prescription medications. All too often, patients ignore the directions associated with their prescriptions, consuming more or fewer pills than that recommended by their doctor. Many patients simply forget to take the medication for one or more days, resulting in a lengthened healing process. In some cases, not taking pills according to a precise schedule can result in complications requiring expensive hospital stays or increased time consulting with a physician. These cost increases from the patient's lack of compliance are passed on to health care providers and insurers.
One approach to solving the problem of patient compliance has been the development of modified pill containers which automatically dispense the correct number of pills. U.S. Pat. No. 5,641,091 to Daneshvar is a medication dispensing device which allows a patient to receive his medication on a regular basis. A series of small spaces are arranged in one or more electrically powered rotating trays to allow a proper dose via a window. While this approach makes it easier for a conscientious patient to follow his prescription, forgetful patients may simply let pills “build up” rather than consuming them. Additionally, such devices contain many moving parts that are subject to malfunction and wear. Malfunctions could result in legal liability if the patient was provided access to fewer pills than required by his prescription.
A similar dispensing device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,472,113 to Shaw. The automatic pill dispensing device of Shaw has cartridges rotated via an electric motor, electromagnetic clutches, a rotatable shaft, and gears. As with the Daneshvar device, there is no way for a remote third party to know whether or not the device is operating properly and whether the patient is in fact complying with his prescription.
Because third parties such as hospitals and insurance companies would like to have access to patient prescription compliance data, other devices have been created to store data such as how often a pill container has been opened or the time and date that it was opened. U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,172 to Dessertine and U.S. Pat. No. 4,939,705 to Hamilton et al. both describe such an apparatus. These devices, however, either require the user to physically deliver the apparatus to the interested third party for data retrieval and verification, or require that the device have a modem for online connection to the third party. Physical delivery is time consuming and potentially costly for the user, while an online connection requires expensive hardware and greater sophistication on the part of the user.
A need therefore exists for a method and apparatus that addresses the deficiencies of the prior art. Specifically, a need exists for a reliable and efficient method and apparatus for securely measuring, reporting and tracking pill container access data generated in an off-line environment. Accordingly, the shortcomings associated with the related art have heretofore not been adequately addressed. The present invention addresses the deficiencies of the prior art by providing an apparatus and processing approach that have not previously been proposed.